Selected statistics from the World Bank’s Regional Brief on Africa:
7. Between 1990 and 1999 PPP GDP per capita growth was 15 percent ($1,158.9 to $1,327.8) for Sub-Saharan Africa; in between 2000 and 2008 it was 54 percent ($1,372.9 to $2,113.9).
8. Exports rose from $319.0 billion in 2007 to $413.7 billion in 2008, a 29.7 percent rise; conversely, imports rose less than exports, from $305.3 billion in 2007 to $372.1 billion in 2008, a 21.8 percent rise. Continue reading
I’m in Johannesburg this week looking at the South African trade and investment climate. Having first visited Johannesburg in 1995, I had a particular image of what I thought I was going to return to. Then, all the businesses and government offices had abandoned their offices for commercial parks in the northern suburbs. The city skeleton that was left functioned more like an elaborate car park for taxis. Business offices were quickly repurposed to suit the new resident’s needs. Crime and squatting skyrocketed as immigrants, slum dwellers and drug dealers took refuge. Continue reading
Trade advocates had some good news recently: at a recent high-level financing conference in Lusaka, Zambia, international donors pledged over $1 billion to the North-South Corridor Initiative to upgrade transport links across Eastern and Southern Africa. Continue reading
The US International Trade Commission just released the 2008 numbers for US-Africa trade under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), and I’m pleased to report that AGOA exports from sub-Saharan Africa are up 30 percent from 2007 to $66.3 billion. Non-oil exports increased 51 percent, largely due to South Africa’s rising position as a transportation equipment manufacturer. Continue reading
Africa moved one step closer to full economic integration in October when representatives from three regional trade blocs, including six Heads of State, agreed at a summit hosted by Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni in Kampala, to form a new cross-regional free trade bloc and customs union. The new bloc, to be comprised of the 26 member nations of the Common Market of Southern and Eastern Africa (COMESA), the East African Community (EAC) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC), will create the largest free trade area on the African continent with a market of over 527 million people and a combined GDP of $624 billion.
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